Coming off a rest week, the No. 18 Illinois women’s track and field team heads into a three-meet weekend, which the Illini hope will prepare them for future meets. 

The team will face a field including NCAA Indoor Championship contenders, No. 2 Texas A&M and No. 15 Texas Tech, in Baton Rouge, La., on Saturday at the LSU Alumni Gold meet. The rest of the squad is split with a couple of multi-event athletes going to the Mt. Sac Relays in Walnut, Calif. to compete in the heptathlon and others heading to the Jesse Owens Classic in Columbus, Ohio.

The Illinois squad will be competing for the first time in the last two weeks, and despite the risk of losing its hot streak to start the outdoor season, head coach Tonja Buford-Bailey feels more confident in the team’s performances this weekend. 

“They needed the rest,” Buford-Bailey said. “We had been traveling so much, and it’s just great to get a week of just practice. The team actually tends to run much better after a rest week, and they’ve even shown that in their times in practice. They train harder when there is no meet, so, if anything, the week off is a benefit for us.”

The athletes also share the same confidence as their coach showed. Freshman sprinter Morolake Akinosun said she wasn’t concerned about the tough competition she would have to face in her individual races. 

“Relay-wise, LSU and Texas A&M are really good teams, and I’m excited to race against them,” Akinosun said. “We need the competition to get ready for the Drake Relays and Big Tens.”

Buford-Bailey said the team’s 1600-meter relay is better than any other school it will face this weekend, but its focus is working on the 4 x 100 meter relay.

“We just haven’t run it that much, and we don’t have four solid legs yet in that event,” Bunford-Bailey said. “This will give us some needed practice in that event.”

Junior middle-distance runner Ahlivia Spencer is excited to make a comeback to top-tier competition, after missing the Big Ten and National Indoor Championships, as well as almost half of the outdoor season due to a hamstring injury. 

“I’m really just happy to get back into the swing of things,” Spencer said. “I’ve had one open heat 800-meter race. I did pretty well, and I just want to build on that going forward.”

Facing some tough opposition in a meet that LSU calls the “Battle on the Bayou,” Buford-Bailey said she is keen on the team making a statement this weekend. 

“We want others to know that they should always look out for Illinois,” she said. “Sometimes, the schools from the South will count us out, but we just want them to know that we are a force when we show up.”

Lanre can be reached at alabi2@

dailyillini.com and @WriterLanre.